Bowling together: sprawl and social virtue.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Robert Putnam - Brief article

THE SPREAD-OUT, suburban, auto-centered way of life has been blamed for everything from anomie to obesity. The well-known sociologist Robert Putnam has even quantified his animus against sprawl, claiming that it decreases community involvement by 20 percent according to a variety of measures.

More recent research should take some of the heat off suburbia. The economists Jan K. Brueckner of the University of California at Irvine and Ann G. Largey of Dublin City University began a new study, published by Brueckner's employer, wondering if sprawl created "negative externalities"--that is, costs imposed on others. In particular, they wanted to know whether living in areas with low population densities reduced social interaction, something we might get less of when other people decide to live away from us. They found that interactions with neighbors, including invitations to visit, are actually higher in less dense areas.

The Brueckner/Largey study concerns personal social...